We have been married for 17 years, and now she wants out, she has been seeing a lawyer, she informs me (thru her lawyer) that had we been married for 20 years, then she would be intitled to spousal support for the rest of her life, even if she gets re-married, is this correct ?
Also does any one have ruling on who qualifies for spousal support, as our married failure would fall under her adultry.
Thanks
phil

First, you have to figure out if she sacrificed her earning capabilities to enhance your career. If she did, you probably owe her spousal support.

If not, then it becomes a tad more complicated, and you'll have to read up a bit more. Theres a website, if you do a search on google, for utoronto and spousal support advisory guidelines. It'll enumerate a few factors when calculating spousal support.

And, it's a no fault divorce, so the fact that she cheated has very little bearing on if she deserves spousal support. It sucks, but it's how it works in Canada. However, if she moved in with the other man, you may be entitled to lower the SS that you have to pay.

Usually SS is to bring up the salary of the lower earner up to between 40 and 46% of the combined income for a period of between half the marriage to the length of the marriage (between 8 and 17 years in your case). It also changes if you have children together.

How do you mean, sacrificed to enhance my career ?
Before we were married, she earned more than i, after we were married she earned aprox the same as i did, then we had kids, 3 in a row 96, 98 and in 2000. She unalateraly decied to stay home, for the next 7 years we lived pay to pay. Then she started back to work 4 years ago, but evenings as a waitress at a fine dining restaurant, she made some good money, she just quit in september to work for a bank where she now makes, $12/hour part time...
The real issue is 2007 and 2008 i was making $65000./year 20 minutes from home, then march 2009 i was laid off, i found a new job at $50000./year but am comuting from niagara to toronto for this job.
So at best it'll be a struggle to pay child support, let along spousal support !

Well, she will argue that she quit her job to take care of the children so that you could concentrate on your career. So, she has a strong argument that her future earnings are diminished because she was out of the work force for a long time, and you benefited from this.

So, chances are, you will have to pay some SS.

You have to resolve the child custody and child support before attacking the SS. If she has full custody, you will take into consideration the CS that you pay.

If you make 50K, and she makes 25K, her earning should be approximately $32,000 (43% of 75,000). And, for spousal support, you can take any non taxable government benefit, for example, the CCTB and UCCB.

Read the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines on UToronto's website. They have a summary document there, and it'll clear a lot of things up for you.

Just trying to find out the definition of common law as it relates to the number of years that someone is considered living common law, i.e. 1 year or 3 years. My lawyer has indicated 12 consecutive months is considered a common law relationship, and therefore, do I have to continue spousal support payments?

I doubt she will earn $25k, more like $16k, but she quit her job of $30k as she knew she was going to separate... I have cell phone text from her stating that she will screw me over for Spousal support... But 1 thing she has stated, not that she will follow thru but she wants me to have to have 50% custody. So i'm not sure how this is going to play out.